9/11/21 – 9/26/21
9-11 fell on a Saturday this year, and found us driving from a very hot Las Vegas Nevada to Great Basin National Park. Getting to the park from Vegas takes 4-5 hours and leads you through some remote parts of Nevada where the crowds are thin and the towns are often ghostly. Once we arrived, we quickly discovered that the campgrounds, despite the time of year and the remote nature of this park, were still full on the weekends. We improvised and stayed at a trail head for the first night, and didn’t have any problems. The next day, we went for a bike ride to our “preferred campground” in the area, and were able to get a nice spot there for several nights.
On our first full day at the campground, I decided to do a strenuous hike while Mona stayed back and hung out at camp. I had a trail to take up to Baker Lake, and from there it was a strenuous rock scramble (no trail) up to Baker Peak. Topping out at 12,306 feet of elevation, and covering about 19 miles round trip, this was a difficult day hike that pretty much wiped me out. Bemoaning my condition when getting back to camp, we decided to try a restaurant in Baker Nevada, and had some very good steaks! I always feel a bit guilty when I go off and do a hike like this alone – knowing that Mona would likely stay behind and clean, organize, and use the duster until every spot of dirt was gone. But… the things I enjoy are not enjoyed by too many, and it’s nice to go at whatever pace makes sense for the person, and for the day. Baker was a good mountain to climb – in many ways significantly harder than doing Wheeler, which gets all the attention.
The next day we had reservations for the Lehman cave, found in the state park. The cave is interesting – lots to see, large, and with a fairly colorful history. There’s some damage inside from the early days, but still a lot to see and learn about. We finished up with the cave, and then went on a hike to check out the bristlecone pines that are extremely old. Dating back for thousands of years, the pines have stood the test of time in some very harsh conditions – a testament to life finding ways to cope in remarkably difficult circumstances. We also saw what is a rapidly disappearing glacier at the base of Wheeler Peak. The glacier is now not much more than slivers of ice and snow tucked in at the base of peak in the most shaded parts of the mountain. Looking up gave us a good understanding and sense for what we’d be doing the following day – getting up Wheeler!
As planned, we got up the next morning, had a quick breakfast, and drove to the Wheeler Peak trailhead. The trailhead is fairly high, which cuts off a sizable amount of vertical that would have to otherwise be done – think thousands of feet. The trail starts out easy – almost too easy – since you know at some point you still have thousands of feet of vertical to cover before you’re on top of the 13,064 foot Wheeler Peak. Despite some strong winds and tired feet, we marched to the top and enjoyed some great Nevada views! The hike down was pretty uneventful. We made it down and went to a little restaurant back in Baker, which, as it turned out, had some very good food!
It was finally time to leave the Great Basin area behind as we started heading to LA. It’s a fairly long drive, and so we decided to stay on some BLM land right on the border of Death Valley. This was true remote camping – nothing to be seen or heard for miles and miles, out in the desert. To celebrate the event, we watched an old movie I still remembered from a kid… about 2 couples being chased in their RV by witchcraft believers when they spotted them sacrificing a live girl. I don’t think Ramona got a lot out of it, but… it was still eerie none the less…
The next day we made it to LA, which was in extremely stark contrast to the Death Valley camp. Along the way, we did spend some time in Death Valley, visiting the lowest spot in the USA. It was rather odd looking up – quite a ways up! – to see the spot marking sea level!
It was hot, and after seeing some of the sites, we kept moving. Thankfully, Ramona had found a place for us to stay outside of a climbing gym in Redlands, CA (parking lot). It worked out well – we got some climbing in, and as it turned out, the parking lot was a very pleasant and quiet place to stay for the night.
The next day was about some people watching… at Venice beach! We went for a run, and then rode our bikes along the boardwalk. Venice beach is still home to plenty of “oddities”, and we had a good time looking around. As expected, finding places to stay, short of just staying on the side of the road, was not easy. We ended up staying at an RV park right in Hollywood, and actually had a good experience! The park was fairly quiet, and we were able to get our laundry done quickly and easily that day. With van life, finding good ways to do what can be trivial in a home can all of a sudden get a bit more complicated. We were glad to have hookups and the laundry room close by!
On our next day, September 19, we checked out the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, and the Griffith observatory. It was largely a down day, but still good to see a few parts of LA.
Ramona had in her mind that a trip to Six Flags in Ventura was in order. For her it was a chance to relive some old memories of being there years ago with her college roommate Heidi, and for both of us, it turned out to be a day of realization that rides can indeed lead to some nausea! The rides weren’t busy, essentially no lines with just a few exceptions. We were done with rides after just 3 hours or so, and decided to keep moving.
The next day was reserved for some errands – we needed to get an oil change, and also had to pack our backpacks for the Channel Islands. We got our errands done, and tried to get to bed early knowing that we had to get up early the next day for our 3 hour ride to the Channel Islands.
The Channel Islands are a place to go if you want to see CA like it was before the crowds. While there were remnants of ranching that had taken place years ago, the islands are largely void of people, and have a remote feel to them. We stayed in a campground on SantaRosa, which had the benefit of running water and clean bathrooms. Our backpack in was only a couple miles on flat land, but we went on two long hikes over several days to explore the island and see what it had to offer. It was windy, and a bit cold at night. And sure enough, I managed to catch a cold which I probably snagged at the amusement park from some dirty thing I touched just days earlier. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad, and didn’t slow us down too much…
After spending a couple nights on the island, we caught the ferry back to the mainland, and were lucky enough to see hundreds of dolphins, and probably over a dozen whales – all very close to the boat! It was a pretty amazing experience to see that much wildlife that close to the boat – something that doesn’t happen very often! The boat also stopped at a cave off the coast of Santa Cruz, the opening large enough for the boat to actually go into the cave part of the way, very cool.
We made it back to the mainland and stayed up in a rather quant “up-scale” town called Ojai. The campground didn’t have lots to offer us, especially since I was still battling my cold, but we did make it to an Olive farm, and had a chance to just rest up and catch our breath.
After staying a couple nights, we packed up and went to Hobson Beach. We stayed at a small campground with full hookups (quite the treat!) and it was right on the beach! I decided that the best way to rid myself of my cold would be…. To get cold! I donned my wetsuit, and tackled the waves with one of our racing SUP’s intended for calmer conditions. It meant lots of falls, but great practice trying to stand up in the rough surf. While I did that, Mona went for a run, and then we fixed dinner and called it a day.
When I look back over the past few weeks, it’s clear that we had some down time, but that we also covered a lot of ground, and had a chance to do some pretty amazing things that many people never get to experience. Along the way, we met some more people that were fun to visit with, and continued to refine how we live in the van. Mona’s getting to be a great cook in the van, and just wants me to be out of her way for the most part. We’ve also gotten a taste of the good life – having plumbing and electrical where you can take long hot showers, run the microwave as long as you want, and not stress about an overflowing grey water tank. We’re excited to keep our journey going in CA as we make our way north toward San Francisco. Finding places to stay has been a challenge, but CA has also provided us with some very interesting experiences and things to see!
Great Basin NP Bristle Cone Pine Great Basin NP Lehman Cave – Great Basin NP Hiking Wheeler Peak – Great Basin NP Summit of Wheeler Peak Summit of Wheeler Peak Hiking Wheeler Peak – Great Basin NP Great Basin NP – Wheeler Peak Death Valley NP Death Valley NP Sea level sign way above Vandaloo on the mountain Death Valley NP Salt flats in Death Valley Climbing at Flowstone Climbing Biking on Venice Beach Getting ready to take the ferry to Santa Rosa Island Campground on Santa Rosa Island Santa Rosa Island Santa Rosa Island Hiking on Santa Rosa Island Santa Rosa Island Hiking on Santa Rosa Island Santa Rosa Island Cave off of Santa Cruz Island (on our way back from Santa Rosa Island) Six Flags Magic Mountain Paddling at Hobson Beach
